In the Flames
by Tink555
Summary: When the future goes completly wrong, will there be anyone left alive to save it?
1. Chapter 1

In the Flames

Prologue

_Well, every stories got to start at some point. I know that most stories start with once upon a time, or something of the sort, but this one doesn't start with that. This one begins in the future. This isn't the average, totally and completely technology filled, perfect future either. This one is corrupted. Lost. Mad._

_So, in order to make this future I'm talking about in this story to make since, I decided I shall make this prologue for you all. It's better to have some idea of what's going on in a story then none at all, correct?_

_For years, depression slipped through the world, forcing people out of jobs, houses, and in some desperate cases, out of their own families in desperate attempts to have more for them. Families, towns, cities, and eventually nations were torn apart from this, until only a handful of people survived in the ruins and ashes that was once their beautiful world. These people knew that on the road they were on, the world would continue to spiral out of control until there was nothing left to inhabit it. So they did the only thing they could think of at the time. They improved it. _

_Soon the world was starting to get back on its feet again. The only problem was that the people knew that if they allowed the world to go on as it had before, there would be the same problems born into it again. The people chose to choose a leader to protect the world from ever falling like it had again. Sadly, none of them realized how big of a mistake that was until it was much too late. At first, their leader was strong, helpful, and kind to them. It seemed to speed up the healing process much faster then they thought it would. But as soon as they got too comfortable, everything started to change._

_Adult woman were only given one job. They were randomly given a number, and they were told to produce that many kids. As soon as they reached the magic number, they were put into a rest home for the rest of their lives. Most seemed perfectly fine with being pampered for the rest of their lives though. None ever seemed to have a complaint._

_Adult men, on the other hand, had a much bigger job. As soon as their first girl was pushed aside, they were immediately assigned another one. They continued this until they were too old or weak to reproduce any more. The guys complained much more then the girls did, but none of them who did were around long enough to influence anyone._

_Kids had it best by this time. They did the most work, but they also had the most freedom. From the time the kids are able to walk and talk, they are taken away from their host families, and sent to a training camp. They are kept here, constantly supervised until somebody finds a skill that sticks out more than all others. Once this kind of talent is found, they are taken from this camp, and sent to the advanced camp where this talent is nurtured and grown. They stay at this camp for five years, until the leaders are sure there is no way to improve the talent anymore. Then the leaders choose a job for each of the kids, depending on their talent, and how full each occupation is. Some are immediately sent to the best of the best, if it's available. If all occupations are too full, the remaining students are marked as rejects, and are never seen again. Some believe that these kids are deserted somewhere miles from any life to die. Others believe there is a special place set aside just for them. Most believe that these children are set out into the wild, and some come back when they're older, wild like animals and seeking their revenge. _

_As soon as their job is chosen, they are expected to go to work each day. After work, they are allowed to do almost anything. There is a list of things they must never do though. If they do these things, they may suddenly disappear as well. The question that is always asked by people, no matter how old, is where all the bad children disappear to. There are many rumors for this too, but I do not have enough time, or paper to write much more today. Plus, I do not know much more. I am after all just one of the many citizens living in this messed up world. I just wanted to leave one last message for those stuck in this world now. Good luck to all, and please try your very hardest not to get too engulfed by the flames. _

**YAY! My newest story is finally ready to be posted. What do you guys think of the prolouge? Trust me, this story gets a lot better :). Chapter one in progress. Should be up by tomorrow. **

**Off to bed now. Goodnight :D!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Just to let you all know, the group is all 16 in this story. If they were still their ages, they would still be in one of the training camps.**

Chapter one

Isabella walked through the almost deserted streets of the city, paying close attention to what was ahead of her. She was happy that the streets were light this morning, because the batteries in her flashlights were dead, and she wasn't allowed to use any electricity for a couple of days. It was weird, looking at some of picture books she had hidden in her room and seeing the sky actually look black with tiny white specs or light blue. The only colors she saw in the sky were orange and gray. She had always wondered why before she was allowed outside. The first day she had stepped outside, she realized why when she saw a flame rise into the air in the distance. When there wasn't fire, there was still smoke.

The other weird thing to see in the books was millions of people crowding the streets both by foot and by weird metal contraptions. The books said that those were called cars, but she still didn't understand it at all. Who would want to walk around in cars? Wouldn't all the extra metal make it harder to walk around? She'd much rather prefer walking without the extra weight to carry with her. She had never seen anyone walk around in cars before, and she doubted she ever would. There were never enough people out to see if any of them were doing anything unusual.

The streets were both the safest way, yet the most dangerous way to travel. They were safe because most of the people she had been told to watch out for basically lived in the alleys. It was dangerous because of the shards of ruins in the streets, and also…

Right as she was about to think the thought, a high pitched laugh that made the person sound insane came from behind her. She turned around and gasped at what she saw. A woman stood there, with knotted blond hair. The hair was so tangled, it basically looked like an afro. Her eyes were green and had a glint in them that looked unnatural, even in the orange light. Her clothes were black, charred rags that barely hung on her. She was the oldest woman Isabella had ever seen. None of this was what made Isabella gasp though. The thing that made her gasp was the flame gun in her shaky hand, pointed right at her.

She froze in fear as she saw the gun. She had never seen anything like it before. At least, not outside her books. She had seen plenty of weapons in the books. In fact, she had a whole book filled with generations of different kinds of weapons. She had just never expected one of those weapons to be pointed at her. The woman didn't even hesitate as she pulled the trigger, and a flame flew out at an amazing speed, heading directly towards Isabella. Her life flashed before her eyes as the flame got closer and closer, until something suddenly landed on her. She hit the ground with a thud, looking up to see the flame go right over her head. An insane shriek suddenly filled the air, loud enough to make Isabella cover her ears.

"Ok boys, you know what to do!" The person who had pushed her over shouted. Three figures appeared out of nowhere, but Isabella quickly stopped paying attention to them. Her attention was focused on the person on top of her instead.

"Can you get off of me!" She snapped at him.

"Nope, sorry. Not until this problem is terminated. Should be any second though. These boys work fast." The boy said, looking at the figures. Isabella lay there impatiently until the boy finally hopped off of her, offering her a hand up. She accepted it graciously, glaring at him as she wiped ashes off of her black uniform.

"This isn't the way you should treat the people who just saved your life, kid." The boy muttered, glaring back at her. Although he was glaring, he still had a small smile on his face. He was actually kind of cute.

"Sorry, I'm just going to be late for work now. Again." Isabella rolled her eyes as she continued wiping away the ashes.

"Well sorry for caring about your safety then." The boy snapped, turning to walk away.

"Wait!" Isabella called suddenly, giving up on cleaning her uniform. The boys turned back, as if they had expected her to call that.

"Thanks for saving my life. I'd probably be a pile of ashes if it wasn't for you. I'm Isabella Garcia- Shapiro, by the way." She smiled as she said this.

"You're welcome, but I have just a bit of advice. You shouldn't tell anyone your name unless you really trust them. I could understand why you'd trust us, but be more careful who you tell info like that to. But just to be nice, and since I trust you, I'll tell you our names. Let's just move out of the street. We don't need any more loonies attacking us." The boy rolled his eyes as he said this. He grabbed her hand and smiled a friendly smile as he slowly led her into the alleyway they had appeared out of. Isabella found herself blushing slightly as she followed.

"Now that we're more protected, I'll introduce myself. I'm Phineas Flynn. These boys are Buford, Baljeet, and my brother Ferb Fletcher." Phineas introduced the group, gesturing to each person as he said their names. Phineas had short, spiky red hair. It almost seemed to match the color of the flames. His head was the most peculiar shape. It seemed to be triangular. He was slightly taller than Isabella. Ferb was taller than his brother though. He was a head taller. He had green hair, which was in a similar style to Phineas's. His head was more rectangular, with a huge square nose in the middle of it. He had a blank look on his face, and seemed shy. Buford was, in one word, huge. He was the tallest person in the group, and compared to him, everyone else was scrawny. He seemed to be built more for muscle then for speed. His hair was brown, and was in a buzz cut style. Baljeet was the smallest of all of them. He was had darker skin than the rest of the group. His hair was black and curly. He seemed to be the scrawniest one there as well. Everyone in the group wore the same uniform. It wasn't much of a uniform, but you could tell they were in the same group. The wore a black, short sleeve shirt, and dark grey jeans. Their shoes were also black, with a mini flame on one of the sides. They all wore a dark gray backpack that seemed to be packed enough to break the backpack. None of them seemed to be having any trouble carrying it though.

"Yo Phineas, me and Baljeet here are gonna go finish taking care of this lunatic." Buford yelled although Phineas was right there. He grabbed Baljeet's shoulder and dragged him back out towards the street.

"Wait Phineas, how can you and Ferb be brothers if you two don't even have the same last name?" Isabella asked curiously.

"Well, we don't exactly have the same parents…" Phineas trailed off, looking at Ferb for help.

"Oh, did one of your moms max out on the amount of babies their allowed to have?" Isabella asked.

"I honestly don't even know my mother." Phineas murmured, looking down to dodge Isabella's eyes.

"And my mum's refused to have any babies after me. She and my father love each other too much to ever leave each other." Ferb told Isabella in a thick British accent. Isabella looked a little startled at this comment though.

"But that doesn't work. The government won't allow it!" Isabella whispered urgently.

Ferb nodded and sighed, looking behind Isabella as he murmured "It never does. They never would." It was quiet for moments after words. No one could think of anything to say to that.

"Anyway, if it's not your parents, how are you brothers?" Isabella asked again.

"Well, we kinda just chose to be brothers one day. It was many years ago. Me and Ferb were both around six or seven years old, and were about to graduate from the training school. We were put in the same group for what they thought we'd do best at. We had never spoken to each other before that day. But that day we met each other in that group, it only took one look into each other's eyes to know we were meant to be great friends. We talked to each other soon after, and instantly clicked. From then on, you would never find one of us without the other. It only took a week for us to agree we were too close to just be best friends. We were more than that. We decided that the only thing better then a best friend was a brother. And from then on, that's what we were." Phineas explained smiling at the memory.

"Beautiful story Phineas, but we should probably get back to work." Buford yelled, coming back. Baljeet was right behind him, looking slightly irritated with Buford.

"I think we should first escort this pretty lady to her work." Phineas laughed as he said this, clearly showing he was kidding about the comment. Isabella didn't know if she should get offended with it, or to just go with it.

"Why would we do that?" Buford asked, sounding as if it was horrible or something. This time, Isabella did take offence. She didn't say anything though.

"Must I remind you that we are one of the reasons she will be late for work today?" Phineas asked, getting annoyed at Buford as well.

"Fine, whatever you say, Phineas. Let's walk her to work." Buford mumbled, rolling his eyes. Phineas just smiled and grabbed Isabella's hand.

"Ok Isabella, you'll have to lead the way, since we don't really know where you work exactly. What is your job, anyway?" Phineas asked her.

"Oh, I work as a philosopher. You know, figuring out how to make the world better and all. It's kind of boring, actually. What do you guys do? You know, other than saving my life and hiding in alleyways?" Isabella asked, rushing a bit to get to her work. She didn't like being late.

"Ha ha, very funny. We work as fire men." He said the first part sarcastically, but got serious afterwards. He loved his job more than anything.

"You mean, putting out all of these fires?" Isabella asked, looking around.

"Yes." Phineas replied.

"Well, you don't seem to be doing a very good job." Isabella murmured, looking at all of the flames around them.

"Each time we put out one, five more have formed. What can we do?" Phineas asked. None of them had an answer for that question either, so they walked the rest of the way to Isabella's work building in silence. They stopped in front of a huge building. To explain it simply, it looked like a skyscraper. It was the only building around with windows. The rest of the buildings here were just white, windowless factories.

"Thanks for all the help, Phineas. Doesn't look like I'm quite late yet." Isabella murmured, watching people slip into the glass doors.

"Well that's good! You're welcome. It was our pleasure." Phineas replied, elbowing Buford just as he opened his mouth to say some snide comment.

"Well, I hope I can see you again soon." Isabella turned away from the boys, towards the building. Her two best friends were waiting for her by the entrance, looking shocked as she reluctantly let go of Phineas's hand.

"Not too soon though. I don't wanna have to save your life two days in a row." Phineas smiled a joking smile and ran off; the other boys close behind him. Isabella chuckled slightly, walking towards her friends.

**Ugh, for the past five minutes I've been trying to think of anything I could say here. I couldn't think of anything. Literally, nothing. So I'll just write whatever pops into my head at the moment. **

**This sounds like a really horrible future, doesn't it? I'm really hoping this won't ever really happen. And yeah, I didn't really know what the job Isabella has is called, so I kinda guessed. Think I got it right at all? If I didn't, you should tell me what it is called. **

**I thought the beginning was hillarious. Especially when she talked about cars. So, who'd wanna walk around in cars?**


End file.
